Tina looked at the screen and felt her pulse rate increase.

‘Yes. That’s him. That’s him.’

Alex opened the back door and got out. Tina got out too and joined him in the rain.

‘Is he really a police officer?’

Alex was making a call.

‘Yes,’ he said grimly. ‘But not for much longer.’

Chapter 14

Where the hell had he gone? Malin went round and round the house, over and over again, becoming increasingly agitated with every step she took.

‘Dan?’

Her voice was shrill, brought the children to their feet.

‘What’s wrong, Mummy?’

Max clung to her while Hedvig looked on in silence.

‘I’m looking for Daddy,’ Malin said, failing in her attempt to produce a smile. ‘Have you seen him?’

‘No,’ Max replied.

‘But we heard him coming down the stairs,’ Hedvig added.

Malin stared at her.

‘You heard him coming down the stairs, but you don’t know where he went?’

Neither of the children spoke at first.

‘It’s happened before,’ Hedvig told her. ‘One minute he’s here, then he isn’t.’

Malin’s palms began to sweat. She didn’t understand what her daughter was saying.

There’s nowhere to go.

‘Let’s all look for him,’ she suggested. ‘Maybe he’s hiding, playing a game!’

Max’s face lit up, but there was nothing but fear in Hedvig’s eyes.

‘Mummy . . .’ she said.

‘It’s okay, sweetheart.’ She stroked the girl’s arm reassuringly. ‘It’s okay.’

It didn’t work. Hedvig was too old to be fooled by her mother’s convenient lies.

Malin shook her hair; it was wet and messy. She’d only given it a quick rub with the towel.

Because I was being as quick as I could, and still it wasn’t enough.

She took Max by the hand.

‘Right, let’s find Daddy.’

It was a stupid thing to say, as if there were a thousand places he could be. That wasn’t the case. The kitchen, the TV room, the hallway, the little cloakroom by the front door – that was the whole of the ground floor.

‘Dan? Stop messing around, you’re scaring the children!’

No answer.

Hedvig opened the cloakroom door for the second time.

‘We’ve already looked in there,’ Max whined.

‘I want to look again!’ The girl’s voice was strained; she was struggling to hold back the tears.

‘Right, so this is what we’re going to do,’ Malin said firmly, trying to rescue the situation.

Too late. Max threw himself on the floor.

‘I don’t like it here, I want to go home!’

He began to sob helplessly, and Malin crouched down beside him, put her arms around him.

‘We have to stay a bit longer, poppet.’

‘A bit longer?’ Hedvig said. ‘What does that mean? How much longer, Mummy? How much longer?’